


Asymmetrical

by rottenwraith



Series: The adventures of Cyborg Catra [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Catra (She-Ra) Redemption, Enemies to Friends, F/F, Not Beta Read, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 08:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21296429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rottenwraith/pseuds/rottenwraith
Summary: Some parts match, some don't and that's okay.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: The adventures of Cyborg Catra [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1535198
Comments: 10
Kudos: 50





	Asymmetrical

“Checkmate.” The cyborg feline said, once again, to her fuming blonde friend; said friend with a look of fury on her features that clearly displayed her desire to flip the board, and perhaps follow up with a vaporising it.

Taking a slow, deep breath to suppress her urge to destroy, Adora asked through gritted teeth, “How many moves was it that time?”

“Nineteen, just over double the number of moves as last time, Catra seems to possess a high level of skill in this area Adora, it may be prudent to-”

“Thank you, Entrapta.” Adora cut off her lavender haired friend, her frustration at the multiple recent losses to her oldest friend still burning in her veins.

“And no offence, but could ya' focus, I was planning to use that arm latter.” Catra likewise cut in with her own comment, her arm stretched out at her side with little sparks flying from openings being prodded by hair held tools.

“Oh, I didn't mean to cause distress, besides I am fully capable of multitasking to both perform maintenance on your arm and hold a conversation concerning Adora's poor chess skills.” Entrapta's comment was swiftly followed by the resident blonde blowing her entire lung capacity out of her nostrils; with a small eye twitch.

“I think that's enough chess for now.” Adora said as she packed the board away slowly in a doomed attempt to hide her mood.

“I guess I can find someone else for chess trouncing later.” Catra's smirk enhanced comment earned her a, mostly, playful grin from the blonde sitting across from her. “So, not to rush a master at work but, this going to take much longer; still really want to test out this new arm can do, see what it can do.”

“Likewise.” Adora added whilst cracking her knuckles, eager to spar with newly cybernetic enhanced friend. “Been a week, we finally getting the all clear?”

“Oh, I believe so...” Entrapta trailed off, biting her lip, her own eagerness to see how well the appendage worked.

“Gonna be weird, fighting with only one set of claws...” Catra noted as she flexed her fingers, extending and retracting said claws; an eyebrow raised as she realised the strangeness of it all.

Adora's briefly eager expression quickly turned subtly sombre, some small amount of guilt the situation still weighing on her.

“No you don't.” Entrapta matter-of-factly stated, the non sequitur earned equally an confused “Huh?” from each on the present ex-Horde officers.

“You don't have one set of claws.” The lavender haired mechanic added, refraining from expostulating as she seemingly finished up closing a panel on the arm.

Extending her claws to point out the seemingly obvious, “I'm pretty sure – OW!” Catra gave brief shriek as her cyborg arm started moving again, “Warning would be nice!” She added whilst rubbing her shoulder, the unpleasant shock of connecting nerve endings lingering.

“Watch,” Entrapta said, tapping a circuit inside the last open arm panel causing an brief twitch before small lines on blue light formed out of the tips of Catra's metallic fingers. Entrapta squeed at the sight.

The moment hanged for a briefly before Catra spoke, “You gave me laser claws...”

“Ooooh, 'Laser claws', that's so much better than what I was gonna call them!” A hand of lavender hair stroked it's owners chin in mild disappointment.

“What were you gonna call them?” Adora asked as an aside the resident scientist.

“Shiny slashers.”

“Shiney-”Adora barely got out.

“LASER CLAWS!” Catra yelled in joy whilst purring, eyes sparkling, taking a moment to focus to practise deactivating and reactivating them.

“Exactly how sharp are those?” The blonde asked Entrapta, enjoying the look of joy and excitement she remembered from whenever Catra got the opportunity to blow something up.

“Oh, they should be able to slice through just about anything!” Entrapta proudly stated as Catra had moved on to using individual fingers.

“You sure that's a good idea, what if they switch on accidentally when she's eating or-”

The sudden sound of the last panel slamming shut brought both Entrapta and Adora out of their small conversation, followed by Catra's rushed, “Thanks, I'm off to test them out, BYE!” and with that the feline girl was off; sprinting out the door at full speed on all fours.

* * *

“Pretty good, took off half it's torso.”

“... I was only aiming for the head...” Catra replied to Glimmer with a grumble, her own excessive deadliness vexing her somewhat as she stared at the maimed training dummy. Staring down at the glowing blue razors emmiting from her fingers, Catra couldn't help but muse to herself, “Maybe I should ask Entrapta to make them a bit shorter, closer to me regular claws...”

“Couldn't hurt.” Glimmer responded with a shrug as she looked at her own staff. An idea was forming the Brightmoon royal's mind after seeing Catra's latest weapon; turning to her own (intact) training dummy, holding her staff over her head and focusing her magic before bringing it down.

A large shinning blade split the dummy clean in two.

“WHOA!” Came the unexpected cry of a suddenly appearing blonde haired princess.

“Oh, H-hey there,” Glimmer stuttered as her balance wavered before steadying herself on her staff. “Adora.”

“You okay?” Catra asked as she rushed up to the panting princess; not sure how to offer help since she and magenta haired girl had still had an odd relationship.

“Yeah, just think I-” Glimmer took a quick deep breath to try and regain her composure, “Overdid it a bit there, probably need to practise that so I don't burn up too much magic.” She finished with a shrug; embarrassment on her features as Adora came up to check her.

“I'll say.” The blonde agreed, placing a worried friendly hand on Glimmer's shoulder.

Shrugging her friend's hand off with an affectionate eye roll, “I'm fine, seriously.”

Adora responded with a raised eyebrow and a smirk, “Are you glitching out again out again? You said that a lot when you were glitching out.”

“Oh, haha.” Glimmer responded with a similar expression; Catra snickering off to the side at the, earning the royal's attention, “Laugh it up fuzzball.”

“Sure will, since I'm guessing my new toy,” The feline girl gave brief flourish with her cyborg arm, “Was the inspiration for that little spell.”

“Yeah, but maybe something a little smaller...” Glimmer once more approached the remains of her target, holding her staff across her body this time, and swinging from her hips, a more modest blade of blue light slicing off a chunk of the right side of the the dummy.

And followed up with a second slice to the left.

And a third upward arc.

“Nice.” Catra commented with an impressed nod whilst Adora applauded with a smile and a comment of, “Awesome.” Earning a proud grin and an over the top bow from Glimmer at the welcome affectations.

“Glimmer!” The unexpected sound of a certain crop-top loving boy broke the trio of ladies out of their collective smirks and jokes. Running over to the small group, Bow came to a stop, trying to quickly get his breath back before beginning, “Casta was asking for you, wants to sit in on a meeting.”

Glimmer responded with her trademark groan of annoyance. “Just please tell me this one isn't about planning the sewage system.” The less exciting, and more unpleasant, elements of ruling being something the magenta princess liked to try and avoid.

“Something about food imports I think.” Bow responded with a shrug as he scratched the back of his head, equally unenthused at the prospect.

Glimmer gave her distinctive groan before commenting, “So less gross, more boring.” With a quick wave over her shoulder to the other ladies, “Later girls.” And vanished in a burst of light and sparkles.

The silence left by the departing princess quickly gained a slightly awkward undercurrent, before Bow swiftly broke it, “Wow, that new arm must really be something Catra, I mean just look at that!” Whilst gesturing to the most mutilated training dummy.

“Actually that's Glimmer's, mine's over there.” The feline corrected her crop topped associate with a nod of her head.

“Wait, Glimmer did that?” Bow eyes bugged out a little at the information, “How did she-” His question was cut off by a familiar burst of sparkles.

“Sorry Bow, I'm gonna need you.” The reappeared Glimmer grabbed her friends shoulder before vanishing again.

“And then there were two.” Catra noted with a slight chuckle, “Does she do that a lot? Just port in, grab people and port away.”

“On occasion.” Adora responded, walking over to and picking a pair of training staffs from the weapons rack. “Now I believe you owe me a sparring session.” The blonde finished as she tossed a staff over to her feline friend.

Snatching the staff out of the air with her metallic hand, Catra simply responded, “I suppose I did.” Before quickly passing the staff into her opposite hand before twirling it around to behind her as she lowered herself into a combat stance.

Adora followed suit, effecting her own stance, standing taller than her opponent, her staff held partially across her body pointing froward.

Catra made the first move; thrusting her staff, loosening her grip for a moment to slide her hand to the end to hold in like a longsword. Adora easily deflected the blow and the handful of follow up strikes; small flicks from Catra's wrist, nowhere near enough force behind them to do any damage.

Adora was waiting, trying to get an idea of how Catra would go in the offensive; then she did, planting the ungripped end of her staff in the ground, bending it.

Then releasing it to spring up in Adora's face.

This was followed by as rush from Catra as she grabbed her staff by both hands, forcing it at her opponents, attempting to overpower the blonde; but Adora always had the strength advantage.

Planting her feet and pushing back against her aggressor, Adora, planted one end of her staff just behind the Catra's foot as the feline was forced back, tripping her; and the new cyborg when crashing to the ground.

“GAH!” Yelped Catra as her metal arm shuddered stiffly.

“Catra! Are you-” Adora began to enquire, before she was swept off her feet by a staff.

As the blonde fell, wearing plain indignation, a memory of her childhood, and falling for the same trick, and knowing what was coming next.

Barely an instant after landing on her back with a thud, Catra was bring her staff down like an axe on Adora; exactly what she expected. The blonde brought up her own staff to block, her leg ready to kick, use the feline's momentum against her.

Till she saw her opponent's staff bounce and sail through the air, her eye instinctively tracking it; and missing Catra's next move, but she felt.

The next thing Adora knew, a pair of hands were grasping her own staff and forcing it down towards her neck faster than she could react; and hard to resist after the fact with the wind knocked out of her.

“I think that's my round.” Catra slyly commented as she looked down at the briefly struggling blonde beneath her.

“Your round.” Adora replied with a grumble as Catra released her grip and the weight holding the blonde down, before planting her hands above Adora's head and flipping herself towards her own discarded staff. “That was a dirty trick.”

“I know.” Came the simple response, Adora was just glad Catra didn't seem to dwell on the fact the that this wasn't the first- “Again.”

“Great, just great.”

Eleven rounds later. Six to Adora, five to Catra and a single draw.

“Okay...” Adora started as she lay flat on her back, trying to refill her empty lungs, “I think that's enough for today.”

“Yeah, sure, sounds good...” Catra responded, equally as breathless as her blonde friend, propped up on her elbows. “I'm gonna get some water.” The feline forced herself to her feet, groaning at the aching muscles.

“Pass me some, would ya?” Adora asked, waving her arm in the air in request.

“Catch.” Catra warned with barely a moments notice; the exhausted blonde catching the thrown canteen with the ease that came from a military upbringing.

“Oh sweet, delicious, thirst quenching goodness.” Adora took a few large gulps before pouring a little over her face in an attempt to cool herself. After another deep breath she managed to pull herself into a sitting position to drink more.

“Bit of wordy nickname, but I might be able to make it work.” Catra jokingly responded with her usual throaty chuckle.

“Yeah, you have gotten to be really sweet recently.”Adora chuckled back, knowing that was likely to get a rise out of the feline

“You take that back!” Catra half-demanded, stomping over to her sitting friend with false joking indignation in her manner.

“Never!” Adora responded with equally joking, but no less intense, determination. The two stared at each other playfully for a few moments before descending into laughter and giggles, Catra dropping down to sit beside her friend.

As the mused at how much she had missed just joking around with oldest friend, Adora bit her lip slightly as she mustered her courage. “Hey Catra...” The blonde trailed off for a moment before she was sure she had her friend's attention, “There's this thing happening in town, night after tomorrow, a play...” Adora quickly remembered the mutual upbringing that precluded the theatre, “Oh, a play is this thing where-”

“Adora,” Catra quickly cut in, “I've been in Brightmoon for about five months now, I know what a play is.”

The blonde blushed briefly at her incorrect assumption before cocking an eyebrow and asking, “Bow?”

“Bow.” Catra nodded, no further explanation needed.

“So...”Adora's momentum rapidly deteriorated, “Do you maybe want to got see it? Like together maybe? If you want to?” The blonde hoped that that her nervousness didn't seem too obvious.

“Sounds good,” Catra gave a satisfied nod as her eye narrowed almost imperceptibly in thought, “Bow told me about the Brightmoon version of dating...” Catra resisted the urge to chuckle at Adora's eyes bugging out, “Do I need to dress up?”

“Umm, maybe...” Adora trailed off, somewhat thrown by her feline friend's candour. “Might be nice.”

“I should get some new gloves then,” Catra's eyes wondered down to her hands, metal and flesh. “Ones with fingers.”

“Maybe not.” Adora interceded, a vague recollection coming to mind, “I remember Glimmer mentioning something to me ages ago, something about 'asymmetrical fashion'.” Finishing with a shrug; her own knowledge about fashion was lacking.

“You got a thing for asymmetry?” Catra questioned as she stretched her arms out, her fingers laced together.

“I might be getting one.” The blonde answered, her smirk matching the metal armed girl.

“So,” Catra picked up her canteen before holding it out towards Adora “It's a date then?”

Adora picked up her own canteen, bringing it to Catra's with a small clinking sound, confirming, “It's a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not completely happy with the ending of this story, I felt like I was rushing to get it done before season 4 dropped (Yay on that front) and I was probably trying to hard to work in the title.
> 
> Hope everyone enjoyed, and I was wondering if anyone would like the idea of a prequel, show the road that out beloved Catra took to find herself amongst the rebellion; anyone interested? 
> 
> ps. If anyone's wondering the spells Glimmer uses are Soul Greatsword and Farron Flashsword, yes I'm a Dark Souls fan.


End file.
